Abort the speed test

TL;DR

Bredbandskollen, Google Fiber and LibreSpeed offer the option to abort the speed test.

Cloudflare and Fast offer the option to pauze the test.

All other web-based speed tests can be stopped by using the back button, closing the tab, or closing the entire browser. If you stop a speed test, data usage also stops.

If you do this, you will need to reload the speed test if you still want to run a test.

 

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Method of measurement
  3. Speed tests to test
  4. The measurements
  5. Conclusions
 

Introduction

The fact that the user has control over what happens is an important aspect of usability. User control is one of the 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design as described by Jakob Nielsen.

Jakob Nielsen states: Users often perform actions by mistake. They need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted action without having to go through an extended process.

In this test we want to investigate which speed tests offer the possibility to abort the test.

In addition, we are also very curious about what happens if you cancel a speed test by pressing the back button, closing the browser tab in which the speed test is running or closing the complete browser.

We want an answer to the following question:

If you abort a speed test by pressing the browsers back button, closing the tab or closing the browser, does the data usage required for the speed test stop immediately?

 

Method of measurement

For this test we visit the homepage of the speed test in Brave (a secure web browser which offers you a clean speed test without ads or cookiebanners), run the speed test and investigate whether it is possible to abort the speed test.

For the hard abort test we measure with the live option of vnstat the amount of data required for a complete test and the amount of data if we abort the download test halfway through.

 

Speed tests to test

Because this is a relative simple test, the unique speed tests as collected at ZOMDir will be tested.

For the hard abort test we use SpeedOf.me, Ookla's Speedtest and Fast. This because at 100 Mbps these speed test consumes the most data.

 

The measurements

First we test if the speed test offers an option to abort the test.

  1. Astound speedtest does not offer the option to abort the test
  2. Bandwidth Place does not offer the option to abort the test
  3. Bredbandskollen does offer the option to abort the test
  4. Broadband Speed Checker does not offer the option to abort the test
  5. Cloudflare does offer the option to pauze the test
  6. Comparitech does not offer the option to abort the test
  7. DSLReports does not offer the option to abort the test
  8. Fast does offer the option to pauze the test
  9. Fireprobe does not offer the option to abort the test
  10. Google Fiber does offer the option to abort the test
  11. Internet Speed at a Glance not applicable, the test is ready almost immediately
  12. LibreSpeed does offer the option to abort the test
  13. M-Lab does not offer the option to abort the test
  14. Meter.net does not offer the option to abort the test
  15. N Perf does not offer the option to abort the test
  16. Ookla Speedtest does not offer the option to abort the test
  17. Open Speed Test does not offer the option to abort the test
  18. SamKnows does not offer the option to abort the test
  19. SpeedCheck does not offer the option to abort the test
  20. SpeedOf.me does not offer the option to abort the test
  21. SpeedOf.me API Sample Page does not offer the option to abort the test
  22. SpeedSmart does not offer the option to abort the test
  23. Speedtest4.PHP not applicable, the test is ready almost immediately
  24. TestMy.net does not offer the option to abort the test
  25. Toast does not offer the option to abort the test
  26. Which Broadband Speed Test does not offer the option to abort the test
  27. Xfinity xFi Speed Test does not offer the option to abort the test

Some examples

The following buttons are available to abort or pauze the test.

Several abort and pauze buttons offered by respectively Bredbandskollen, Cloudflare, Fast, Google Fiber and LibreSpeed The buttons above are respectively from Bredbandskollen (abort), Cloudflare (pauze), Fast (pauze), Google Fiber (abort) and LibreSpeed (abort).

The hard abort test

Secondly we test what happens when you abort the test (with the advertised download speed of 100 Mbps).

Initially we test with the live option of vnstat (vnstat -l) how much data is consumed by the speed test and how long the download test takes. This produces these results:

  1. SpeedOf.me: down 6.48 KiB, up 340 B, time to complete the download test 21 seconds
  2. Ookla Speedtest: down 6.05 KiB, up 1.35 KiB, time to complete the download test 26 seconds
  3. Fast: down 10.56 KiB, up 1.85 KiB, time to complete the download test 31 seconds

If we run a retest and abort the download test halfway through by clicking the back button, the result is the following:

  1. SpeedOf.me: down 1.68 KiB, up 302 B
  2. Ookla Speedtest: down 2.34 KiB, up 302 B
  3. Fast: down 8.67 KiB, up 1.07 KiB

These numbers show that an aborted test uses significantly less data than a full test.

 

Conclusions

Bredbandskollen, Google Fiber and LibreSpeed offer the option to abort the speed test.

Cloudflare and Fast offer the option to pauze the test.

In 5 of the 27 speed tests tested it is possible to stop the test. This option is not required for 2 speed tests. This is because the test is over before you realize it.

Note that any web-based speed test can be stopped by using the back button, closing the tab, or closing the entire browser. If you stop a speed test, data usage also stops.